A MULTI-MILLION pound holiday village planned for West Wales has cleared its first planning hurdle.

The businessman behind the scheme, William McNamara, said he was "over the moon" after Pembrokeshire councillors voted unanimously to give the Bluestone Project the go-ahead at a meeting in Haverfordwest.

The proposed scheme, which will create 600 full-time jobs and pump #30m a year into Pembrokeshire's battered economy will now be debated by full council later this month - although it is almost certain councillors will give it their approval.

Only a decision by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, which regulates planning for part of the proposed site, now stands in the way of work starting on the scheme.

Yesterday Mr McNamara, the chief executive of the Bluestone Project and former managing director of Oakwood, which lies close to where the holiday village will be built, said he was delighted at the unanimous decision after six years of hard work and months of dialogue with various agencies.

But he also warned that delays were now costing the scheme a great deal of money and urged that a final decision be taken as soon as possible.

"We have one remaining hurdle, which now has to be passed, and that is the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park," he said.

"As far as we're concerned we hope to conclude all outstanding issues with them in the next two weeks.

"We have been in the planning process since November last year and now there is a very considerable cost to any time delay of around #100,000 a month, which is not very helpful to us.

"We need to move this on. We've come a long way and we would like to see it successfully concluded."

He said although no date had been set for a determination by the national park he hoped it would be decided within the next six to eight weeks.